"Just Friends"

7

(1915 words)
For some inexplicable reason, I'd let myself become a mess over a not-even-breakup for too long. I decided that no, no more of this, I was gonna pull myself together. I stopped crying and being dramatic and threw out the tissues that littered my bedside table. I'd lost a good friend and that wasn't nothing, but I couldn't just drown myself in my own tears because he was too busy putting up walls.

I contacted some friends and started a new peaceful Minecraft smp for a cottage core world, something we'd wanted to do for a while and would be fantastic with the new 1.17 snapshot. I also started dressing a little better, if for no one but myself. It felt nice to put on makeup and some new jewelry, I felt more like I was waking up in the morning and less like dragging myself out of the bed. I'd given up on clothing after the move but now that I felt settled it was time to stop wearing the same sweats.

"How can you not like the Cornflower?" I said to my friend while streaming. I had a lot more viewers since people started thinking Calvin and I were fucking. "I refuse to put Allium in my house, it's not a look."

"That's incredibly invalid. I'm going to replace every flower in this game with Allium." They responded.

I could hear them start typing something and then a notification appeared in the corner of my screen. "Mousymoose replaced 1329 items". We had special commands with a mod, which they made me regret installing.

"You rat bastard!" I screamed into my mic, searching my chests and the fields for anything that wasn't the round purple disgrace.

The chat was discussing their favorite flower, with a few still asking if I was in a relationship, but my mods quickly restricted their message abilities.

I ended the stream by stealing a few diamonds from my friend and logging off before they could kill me for them. Less peaceful than anticipated but they'd committed heresy so it was worth it.
I left my room to make myself an actual lunch instead of just more mac and cheese. Ally's new Meryl Streep Poster scared me as I walked past it in the living room, she'd put it up to cover all the holes in the wall from the "Pin the clit on the cooch" game from her party and also to "Honor the goddess".

"Hey sexy, I liked your stream today." Ally butt bumped me as she entered the kitchen and grabbed a cup from the cabinet.

"Aww, thank you.' I smiled. I loved when she put aside work to watch my content. "'I guess that means you finished your presentation for Friday?"

"Not even close, I'm using you to procrastinate." She grimaced.

I chuckled at the face of disgust she was making. "If you get fired we won't be able to afford this place, we already lost the security deposit from the party."

"Eh, I can just paint over the pin holes in the living room, it's fine."

She definitely could not. Ally's vibe was artsy and DIY, but she was not a handy person. Jake could barely tell a hammer from a wrench. I grabbed some bread off the counter and turkey from the fridge.

"You seem a lot happier, lately," She grinned. "I'm really glad."

"Thank you," I responded, putting my sandwich together and wondering if we had any apples.

"You ever gonna tell me what happened?"

"Umm..."

"That's okay, whenever you're ready." She said in a soft voice.

I stopped making my sandwich to turn and look at her. "Do you know how much you mean to me, Ally?"

Her smile went ear to ear. "Not more than you mean to me, darling."